Celebrities including Bad Bunny and Harry Styles have popularized ballet flats for men at recent high-profile events. Fashion analysts note rising visibility and sales impacts from these appearances. The style signals a shift toward slimmer footwear in menswear.
Bad Bunny wore Dries Van Noten ballet flats at the Happy Gilmore 2 premiere, while Harry Styles donned pastel green Dior flats at the Grammys and black Chanel at the Brits. These sightings have elevated the once-fringe style into mainstream attention, following releases from labels like Comme des Garçons, Maison Margiela, Lemaire and Bode since 2021. Retail analyst Karis Munday of EDITED credits Styles for boosting the trend, saying Celine’s ballet-style lace-ups sold out shortly after his Brits appearance, with ultra-thin soles now in 8% of Zara’s early men’s shoes. Heuritech’s Frida Tordhag reports 23% year-on-year growth in social media visibility for men’s pumps in Europe and 11% in the US among 16- to 25-year-olds. Mr Porter style director Benedict Browne observes a broader move from chunky sneakers—down 3 percentage points year-on-year—to slimmer shoes, up 7 points, with ballet flats influencing hybrid designs like Simone Rocha’s Ballerina Grip and Adidas’s Y-3 Stan Smith variants. Stòffa co-founders Agyesh Madan and Nicholas Ragosta describe their flat-soled slippers as evoking barefoot comfort for urban settings, softening formalwear. Morjas’ Jack Ladow links the trend to historical opera pumps in black tie, now less unfamiliar amid softer footwear preferences. Analysts suggest brands adapt the silhouette for wider appeal, blending it with masculine elements, though full adoption may remain niche.